Important Updates

Open meetings regarding LREI’s class placement policy and this summer’s conversations – Following on from the two open parent meetings we had this summer regarding the implementation of LREI’s class placement policy, I invite you to two additional meetings in the coming weeks. The first will be held on Wednesday, October 3rd, from 6:30 p.m.-8:00 p.m. at 272 Sixth Ave. The second meeting will be on Wednesday, October 10th, from 8:45 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. at 272 Sixth Avenue. These meetings will be similar to those held this summer, informational in nature and open to all LREI families. I encourage you to attend and to bring your questions.

Last night at its first board meeting of the 2018-2019 school year, LREI’s Board of Trustees approved two updated policies – LREI’s Student / Student Sexual Harassment Policy and LREI’s Policy on Reporting Child Abuse and Sexual Harassment of Students by School Employees and Other Adults. These updated policies have been a long time in the making. For most of the past school year, growing out of a high school “mini-mester” and out of the work of the high school Feminism Club and the work of a dedicated group of members of the Class of 2018, led by their teacher and advisor Ileana Jimenez, these policies provide clear, supportive information, guidance, and procedures to students and adults. I encourage you to read the cover letter written by our five graduates and to review the two policies and the reporting form. These materials appear in LREI’s Family Handbook, and on the LREI Connect Resource Page in the folder HS Handbooks & Resources.

The full faculty and staff have reviewed these materials and will continue to have conversations regarding the implementation of these policies in the three divisions. Conversations with the students are coming. Most importantly, conversations about consent, and developing a culture where consent and care for others are the norm, is our goal. We are beginning our work in this direction. We see, in the wider world, the disastrous effects of abuse and harassment. We read, all too frequently, of the impact on students when schools ignore adult abuse of children. We read, again all too frequently, of the harassment and abuse that can happen between teens. We see, every day in the news, what happens when we don’t talk about physical and sexual interactions, about consent and about societal norms based on gender roles and impacted by power and privilege and the refusal to see a new standard for behavior. I am so proud of the students who led the effort to create these policies and to begin this discussion. Please read these policies and join us in this important conversation.